The host with the most, part one

The bright, multicolored flowers of lantanas attract many insects to feed on the nectar they dispense.

A gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) visiting lantana flowers.

However, a number of other insects specialize on extracting nutrients from lantanas in other, more destructive ways.  Recently, I observed many lantana leaves that had been hollowed out, particularly along and around the veins.

A mined lantana leaf.

Although I did not see any of the leaf miners themselves, the pattern of damage was characteristic of the herringbone leaf-mining fly.

More lantana leaves mined by the larvae of the herringbone leaf-mining fly (Ophiomyia camarae)

Meanwhile, other lantanas were suffering from an even stranger affliction -- they had thick growths of miniature stems and leaves where they should have had flowers and fruits.

Lantana flower gall mites (Aceria lantanae) made this plant produce tiny stems and leaves in place of flowers.

In this case, bud mites were the culprits.  The mites had manipulated the plants into switching from producing flowers to growing more vegetative tissue, which had developed into galls enclosing the mites.

Going for a ride? Take a Beetle or a Vespid!

Since I am sitting in an airport, it seems like a good time to write about travel.  Though insects seem small from our perspective, many of them are able travelers.  They can cover long distances by walking, jumping, swimming, digging, and flying.  Additionally, they can use their sensitive antennae to detect faraway food (such as carrion, in the case of the burying beetle shown below).

A tomentose burying beetle (Nicrophorus tomentosus) attempting to scurry away from the camera.

These characteristics make insects an attractive mode of transport for a group of much less mobile arthropods: mites.  If you look closely at the burying beetle below, you can see the mite that had crawled out from some hidden spot onto one of the beetle's wing covers (elytra).

A mite (Poecilochirus sp.) riding on the back of the tomentose burying beetle.

Poecilochirus mites are commonly found riding on burying beetles, since these mites also need to get to carrion in order to feed.  Some Poecilochirus mites consume fly eggs and larvae on the carrion, while some are predators of the burying beetles' own eggs.  Meanwhile, other mites prefer foods unrelated to carrion and, correspondingly, take different forms of transport in search of those foods.

A group of mites rides on the back of the thorax of a mason wasp (Vespidae).

Are mites at best hitchhikers or free riders?  Perhaps not, as some evidence suggests that insects can benefit from the mites too.

Explore some more: Parasitic mites as part-time bodyguards of a host wasp